


Bill 252

by Pargertwo



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-13
Updated: 2015-03-13
Packaged: 2018-03-17 17:45:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3538424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pargertwo/pseuds/Pargertwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So, Episode 5X18.  The big white house, obviously Rachel's.  Grace's room where she took her call.  What did Rachel think about Danny's call to Grace?  What about when Danny arrived to see her, with all his fresh bruises?  She would not have been happy.  This is just a little something that danced around my mind until I got it out on paper.  </p><p>Disclaimer:  The characters are not mine.  I just borrowed them for a little bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bill 252

Danny felt like a black cloud was following him. It had been there many times over the past five years since he moved to this island. It was there before he moved. It was there when he and Rachel got divorced. It was there on what was both the best and worst day of his life; the day he found out he was going to be a father was also the day that his partner Grace was murdered next to him. The cloud was probably there before that, but Danny really tried not to think back that far. 

Realistically, he knew there were good times too, many, many good times. But right now, he was having a hard time holding on to even the memory of the good times. Rachel was threatening to take him back to court again in order to limit his custody. She didn’t even have to look far for reasons to justify her decision. Matt’s murder. Being stabbed by Amber’s ex-husband. Having the crap beaten out of him in that Colombian prison. But, mostly the fact that he had called Grace from that prison and scared the absolute life out of her, which was compounded when he showed up, beaten to a pulp, to see her. Too many terrible things had happened in an entirely too short a period of time.

Rachel had exploded at Danny. She yelled at him over and over again about how dangerous his job was and how he was always dragging Grace into it. A little girl shouldn’t have to see her Daddy arrested for murder in front of all her classmates. A little girl shouldn’t have to be afraid of what would happen to her Daddy every day. A little girl shouldn’t rush home to see the six o’clock news. A little girl shouldn’t be more familiar with hospitals than museums. A little girl shouldn’t have Danny for a father.

Sometimes Danny thought that Rachel was right. He loved Grace with every fiber of his being and would do anything to keep her safe. She was his entire world. He filled in that world with work, friends, surfing, food, and anything else he could think of over the years. But, the truth was that without Grace, without being her father, Danny didn’t think he even existed.

Listening to Rachel, he wondered if the best thing he could do for his precious little girl would be to let Rachel move her to Las Vegas full time. Away from him. Safe from him. Safe from all the danger that followed 5-0 wherever they went. He had always thought that being a police officer enabled him to keep Grace safe, and now he wondered if he were the one thing she needed to be kept safe from. Danny was miserable.

His teammates were worried about him. Danny had confided in Steve the conversations that he and Rachel had after his second trip to Colombia, her fears, and his fears that she was right.

“That’s crazy, man, you’re a great father.”

“Sure, Steve, but at what cost? She has a great step-father in Stan, as much as I hate to admit it. She has Rachel. If I were out of her life, maybe it would make things easier and less confusing for her. She’s just a little girl, and look how much she has had to go through just being my daughter. If it weren’t for me, she never would have been kidnapped!”

“Danny, that’s not fair. Stan’s the one that got both Rachel and Grace carjacked. You’re the one that kept Hoffman away from them after that happened. Who knows how bad that situation could have gotten without you. You don’t give yourself enough credit.”

“Maybe, I just don’t know. Maybe Rachel’s right.”

Steve was at a loss on how to comfort his friend. Five-0 was extremely busy these days. They had a number of closed cases and all the paperwork that went along with them. There were also a number of cases they had closed, with the court dates fast approaching and each of the team members were involved in meetings with the District Attorney’s office to prepare their testimony. They were also working several closed cases, and just received a cryptic lead from the Governor’s office about a threat to their State Senator, Mazie Kealoha.

It seemed that Senator Kealoha had been instrumental in legislation that had an opposing group threatening her with retaliation. She had received several threatening letters and phone calls, and just that morning someone had tried to tamper with her car. Luckily her gardener had spotted the man under the car, but the suspect had gotten away from her police detail. No damage had been done to the vehicle, but there was no telling what could have happened or how this threat was going to escalate.

Steve assigned Lou and Kono to go to the Senator’s home to interview the Senator, the gardener, and any other witnesses. They were also going to bring back the letters and look into getting copies of the phone records. Chin was at the DA’s office prepping for his next court case. Danny was in his office working on a backlog of paperwork. Steve tapped on the glass. “Hey, how about some lunch?”

Danny leaned back in his chair, and ran his hands over his face. His tired eyes finally looked at Steve, “where were you thinking, the shrimp truck again?”

“Yeah, we could do that, but if that’s not your thing today, we can walk over to that Indian place around the corner. Now that you appreciate their fine cuisine that could be a good choice, and a walk in the sunshine would do you good, Danno.”

“How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that? Yeah, Indian sounds good. I am so tired of this paperwork I could spit.”

Once they were settled in the booth and had ordered, Steve figured he might as well see if Danny would open up to him, or bite his head off.

“So, do you have Gracie this weekend? I thought maybe we could take her surfing. It’s not supposed to be too rough on Saturday.”

“No, Steven. I don’t have Grace. Do you not listen to me? I told you. Rachel wants me to back off and I am. I talk to her every night and that has to be enough right now.”

“Okay, but for how long? You gonna let Rachel move her to Vegas? You just gonna stay away from her until she’s 18? 21? A mom? Forever?? Danny you can’t protect someone like that, you know that! You can’t protect a person from life.”

“Maybe not, but I can protect Grace from MY life. She wouldn’t be in danger if it weren’t for me. She wouldn’t ever be exposed to violence if it weren’t for me and my job. She would be just a regular 12 year old girl doing regular 12 year old girl things. I don’t want to do this Steve. But it’s the right thing for my baby girl. Can we just drop it now? This is killing me. Ya know what, I’m not hungry anymore.”

At that, Danny abruptly left the booth and rushed out of the restaurant leaving Steve with a full table of unfinished food and the bill. Plus all the angst he felt for his friend’s pain.

“Grace Williams, you are going to this event with me!” Rachel shouted up the stairs. “Get ready in the nice outfit I put out for you, and let’s get going.”

“Fine. I’ll go if you make me, but this is Danno’s weekend and I am supposed to be with him.”

Rachel drew an exhausted breath and looked at her babysitter. “This is just so difficult for her, but I know it’s for the best. Charlie should go down for his nap at 3:00 and Grace and I should be home no later than 6:30. Thank you so much for watching Charlie for me today.”

“No problem Mrs. Edwards. Charlie and I will be fine together, and I’m sure Grace will be fine too.”

Rachel wished that would be true. She knew she was making the right decision for her daughter. Danny was a danger. Being around Danny was a danger. She did not need to feel her daughter was in danger any longer. It appeared that even Danny agreed with her, because he did not argue when she began to limit his visitation. She knew that he and Grace still spoke on the phone every night, and that was fine with her. For now. She wasn’t a monster after all! Danny was still Grace’s father, but Rachel needed him to see what his job and his activities were doing to Grace. Once he did, maybe he would leave them alone.

Grace came down the stairs. She looked so pretty in her outfit, but her face was so sad. Rachel looked closer and thought that Grace looked like she had lost weight. But, that wasn’t possible. Grace was a naturally thin child but right now she looked like she was wasting away. It had been over two months since she had seen her father and she was not dealing with Rachel’s decision well at all.

Rachel and Grace had already had many long, detailed conversations about Danny’s job and the dangers it presented. Rachel told Grace that it was her job as the mother to protect Grace from things that were a danger to her, not just physically but emotionally as well, and in Rachel’s opinion, Danny and his job were one of those dangers. Grace obviously did not agree, so there was no happiness in their household at the present time. In fact, Rachel had just been to a meeting with Grace’s teacher who was very concerned about Grace. It seemed that Grace’s schoolwork had begun to suffer. She no longer participated in class or spoke with the other children. She was close to failing in several subjects. Rachel was worried, but still felt her decision was the right one.

“You look beautiful, darling! Now put aside that sad face. We are going to have a wonderful time at Senator Kealoha's tea party. It’s a wonderful fundraising event for a great cause. Since I’m the vice chairwoman, it would be helpful if we arrive early to help greet the other guests, so let’s get going.”

Grace heaved a very put-upon sigh and headed for the car. She spoke to her Danno every night and she knew how sad he was and how much he missed her. Her mother had explained her reasoning to Grace, but she refused to listen to Grace’s arguments. When Grace spoke with her Danno, she kept asking him to change his mind, but he just kept saying “mommy’s right, monkey. It’s too much for you to see me hurt and to see the bad things that happen.”

What neither Rachel nor Danny realized was that what they were doing to Grace was a worse thing than any of the “bad” things she had seen. Grace had visited a therapist after both the carjacking and the kidnapping and was able to come to terms with both of those experiences. During those sessions she also had worked on her fears about her father’s job. As a result of her experiences, Grace was very mature for her age. Some of her maturity could be attributed to the carjacking, kidnapping, her father’s job and seeing both her father and his co-workers recovering from on the job injuries. 

But, some of her maturity was due to her parent’s divorce. Some of it was even due, although Rachel would deny this, to the acrimony that was in her mother and step-father’s home. They spent a lot of time fighting and both Grace and Charlie were the unfortunate witnesses to their sad marriage. If you asked Grace, she far preferred the times that she spent with her father, secure in the knowledge of his love. She knew her mother loved her, but it wasn’t in the focused, all-encompassing manner of Danny’s love. Her mother’s was a distracted, unfocused love. Grace knew she came first with Danny. With Rachel, she might be first, fourth or last, it all depended what was happening at any given moment. She loved her little brother, but nine years was a huge age difference and other than their mother, they had very little in common. Stan was fine. He was nice to her, but he was rarely home when she was there, and when their paths did cross, he was usually arguing with her mother.

Grace also loved her Uncle Steve, Uncle Chin and Aunty Kono. It didn’t matter that they weren’t “real family” as Rachel put it. They were real enough for her. Uncle Steve would do anything for her, just like Danno and she trusted in his love. Aunty Kono had taught her to surf and they had many girlie outings together when Danny just couldn’t deal with dress shopping or mani-pedi’s. And Uncle Chin needed her! He was so sad when Aunty Malia died and Grace knew that she helped to make things better for him. She also liked Lou Grover and his family. The 5-0 Ohana was Grace’s Ohana and she was confident in her place with them.

As much as not being with Grace was killing Danny, not being with her Danno was making Grace sick, emotionally and physically. But, she was just too young to be able to change her Mom’s mind. She didn’t know what else she could do.

As Rachel and Grace were leaving for their tea party, Steve returned to HQ. Chin was in his office on the phone and Kono and Lou were at the Smart Table, but there was no sign of Danny. He headed for Lou and Kono to see what they had discovered at the Senator’s home and was pinned by Kono’s angry eyes.

“Do you always have to push him, boss? You know how hard this is for him.”

“What?? Was Danny back here? What did he say?”

“He said he’s taking the rest of the day off, and I don’t blame him, man.” This from Big Lou. “I don’t know what I would do if my wife blocked me from seeing my kids. I guess that’s why I make sure that she stays my wife and not my Ex-wife, but not everybody gets that option.”

“Danny was really upset, Steve. You know this is hard for him to deal with and it doesn’t help that you want to talk it out with him. He’ll come to us when he’s ready, he knows we’re here. But you just can’t leave it alone, can you? You always need to solve every problem.” Kono’s eyes were filled with tears and Steve was surprised by her comments.

“I’m sorry, Kono. I guess I do try to solve problems. That’s just how I’m built. I just can’t stand the silence. Danny always comes to me with his problems. Always. And he hasn’t with this one and it’s freaking me out. I’m so worried about him. I’m worried about what he will do if Rachel takes him to court and gets permission to take Grace to Vegas. I’m afraid Danny won’t fight and this will just kill him.”

Kono deflated. She knew that Steve was trying to help. It’s just sometimes his help could hurt, especially if you weren’t ready to accept it. She put a hand on his arm and smiled through her tears.

“I know Steve. I know you want to help. Just please try and remember how very fragile Danny is right now.”

They then turned to the Smart Table and began filling Steve in on the information they had received from the Senator’s assistant. The threats seemed to start very mildly, just before the Senate vote. After the vote, they seemed to escalate both in frequency and in vitriol. But they weren’t getting far with the information they had. While the letters were angry and threatening, they were also quite unfocused and lacked detail about what the group actually wanted from the Senator. Unfortunately, they knew that they were in a waiting game for the group to make their next move which could provide them with enough details to track them down. Hopefully no one would be hurt by whatever that next move would be.

Grace set her purse at her place at Table #3 and went to check out the appetizer table. She wasn’t really hungry but it was the only thing at this tea party that was interesting to her. Her mom was in her glory. She loved these events and participated in as many charities as she could handle, both in Hawaii and in Las Vegas. It was important to Stan’s work and their standing in their community for the Edwards family to be seen as philanthropic, she often told Grace. Grace wasn’t sure why it was important, but she did like that her family did nice things for homeless people and animals, crippled children and other good causes.

Her mom looked so pretty and the other ladies were really dressed up too. Grace had been introduced to Senator Kealoha and smiled politely when she was complimented on how pretty she looked. Grace liked what she knew about Senator Kealoha and had done a social studies report on her. The room was starting to fill up with people and the servers and it looked like it was getting close to the time for the speeches to start.

Grace saw her Mom sit down and wave at her to come back to the table. She started to head over, but was distracted by one of the servers. The woman looked really out of place, but Grace couldn’t figure out why. Then she realized that while the other servers had uniforms on under their aprons, this lady had regular street clothes on. “That’s really unusual” Grace thought as she made her way over to the table.

Grace sat down and the chairwoman of the event made a nice little speech and introduced Senator Kealoha. As the Senator thanked her and moved to take the microphone a loud voice thundered through the room.

“Hands up everyone! This is not a drill.”

Nervous laughter erupted in several areas around the room, but it died down quickly as one of the servers drew a gun from her waistband and approached the dais pointing her gun at the Senator’s head. It was the server Grace had taken note of earlier.

“I said hands up, I won’t ask again.” The speaker was another young woman who had some sort of automatic weapon in her hands. There was a third person, a man, in the back of the room and it looked like he had slid a bar into the handles of the door to the banquet room. He had a handgun. There was only the one entrance.

There were maybe 60 people in the room, ten on the dais and the rest at the tables and chairs arranged around the small banquet room. Grace was one of about five children, all girls. Women were beginning to shift in their chairs and several ladies had started to cry. The main gunwoman, the one who had spoken before said, “My associate is going to pass through the room with a bag, and I want all cell phones and all purses in the bag. Don’t let me catch you holding something back. You won’t like the consequences if I do. You also better keep quiet. No one will get hurt if you keep quiet, but if you start with the noise, then I start with the noise.” With those words she shook her gun at them and one of the women at Grace’s table actually fainted.

Grace looked at her Mom. Her mom caught her eye and tried to give Grace a brave smile, while she held a finger to her lips in the classic “shhh” gesture. Grace nodded that she understood. Rachel wet her napkin in her water glass and held the napkin to the back of the neck of the woman who fainted, and started to fan her with the program.

“What do you want?” Senator Kealoha asked.

“What we wanted was your vote in favor of Bill 252 last month in the Senate, but we didn’t get it, did we?” responded the woman with the machine gun.

“No, you didn’t” the Senator calmly responded “But what do you want now? What is taking us prisoner going to accomplish? This is between your group and I. Why don’t you let these other people go? They have nothing to do with this!”

“And have them alert every cop on the island? That’s not going to happen Senator. We want a re-vote on Bill 252. We want you to reverse the vote that happened and cast the vote in our favor. And we want it now.”

“But, that’s not the way the political process works” spluttered the Senator. “I can’t just call an emergency meeting of the Senate and have them vote on this one bill. What do you think you’re doing? Bill 252 isn’t even that important of an issue.”

At those words, the face of the woman with the handgun contorted in anger. She immediately brought the gun down against the Senator’s head causing her to fall to the ground unconscious. The woman nearest to them began to scream.

“Shut up, shut up you stupid cow” Cried out the gunman. “Damn you, I told you that you hadn’t thought this plan through at all.”

“Shut up and let me think.”

“Commander McGarrett” Pua cried out as he entered HQ.

“What’s up Pua?”

“Sergeant Lukela asked me to contact you sir. There appears to be a disturbance at the Polynesian Garden Country Club. The Sergeant asked me to have you contact him on the police radio, band 3.”

Steve grabbed a radio as the others began to gear up. They didn’t know what the disturbance was, but they would be ready.

“Steve, we’re not sure of the situation, but Senator Kealoha was at a benefit this afternoon at the Country Club. One of the women had left the room to talk with the manager and when she tried to return was unable to open the door to the banquet room. The manager has closed circuit tv into the room and says that it looks like some type of a hostage situation although there have been no demands. In fact, if it weren’t for the woman leaving the room, we wouldn’t know anything at all was going on.”

“We’re on our way Duke. Tighten down the scene and get all civilians and non-essential personnel out of there. No sirens. If this is Senator Kealoha, I am afraid this is the escalation we were afraid of.”

“Kono, get a call into Danny and have him meet us there. The man is uncommonly good at negotiating with crazies, which I’ll deny I said if you tell him.”

“On it boss. One crazy negotiator coming up.” Kono smirked for a minute when she realized how that sounded.

Chin was the first one there and was already in the manager’s office looking at the closed circuit feeds. Steve checked out the deployment of Duke and SWAT and their people outside. Danny had just arrived. Steve gathered his crew, told Duke and the SWAT Commander to stand firm unless he gave them other instructions and headed into the clubhouse. Chin was heading their way and the look on his face made Steve falter for a moment.

“We’ve got a bigger problem than we thought” Chin said as his eyes darted to Danny before they whipped back to Steve.

“What’s that Chin?”

Chin moved next to Danny and put his hand on Danny’s shoulder, hard.

“I’ve just gotten done looking at the monitors. Danny, Rachel and Grace are in that room. They’re fine. They’re not hurt. But, they are in that room.”  
The color leeched out of Danny’s face and he looked like he was going to hit the floor for a minute. Lou also reached out a big hand to steady him.

“Are you sure, Chin? I’ve gotta see, let me see what you’re looking at.”

At this point, they all moved to the manager’s office to look at the monitors. They all saw the cameras pan around the room. Terrified people sitting at tables. Three bad guys, two women and a man. The Senator was laying on the ground at the dais, and there was blood under her head. And two of the terrified people, close to the front of the room, were Rachel and Grace.

“Ohmigod! What are we going to do, Steve? How are we going to get them out of there?”

“We’re going to do our jobs Danny. We’re going to get them out of there and we’re going to get them out safe. Got it?”

Danny visibly steadied himself before he responded.

“Got it.”

“Good. Now, you gotta get out of here. You can’t be part of this, you’re too close to what’s going on.”

“What? Absolutely not, Steven. There is no way I am leaving here without my little girl. Or my ex-wife for that matter. You know that I can talk to these people. Let me do what I do best, talk.”

Steve knew he was in for an ass-chewing like no other from the Governor for this decision, but he also knew that Danny was the right man for the job. He had proven it over and over again. 

“All right, I need a sitrep and I need a plan. How do we get in there and how do we get those people out of there. Let’s hear it people.”

Kono had already been hard at work and had a diagram of the duct work system throughout the club and particularly over that specific banquet room. It also appeared that there was a walled off door at the front of the room, behind the screen of the dais. It wasn’t apparent to the occupants of the room, but it was definitely a viable way into the room.

They determined that Steve, Chin and Kono would approach the room through the duct work. Lou, the SWAT Commander and several of his team would position themselves by the walled off door. They would give Danny a chance to try and talk the crew into surrendering, but if that didn’t work, they would need to take the room by force. Hopefully, they would have enough of the element of surprise to pull it off without anyone getting hurt. It was a risky plan, but the Governor had approved it. If they let this crew dig in their heels and hold these hostages, there was no telling the number of casualties before they were finished.

Danny was already on the phone. He had called Senator Kealoha’s cell phone and could hear it ringing in the other room. He would try the chairwoman’s next. There was no way he would try either Rachel or Grace’s phone. He didn’t want them to become targets.

Danny kept his eyes glued to the tv’s in the manager’s office as he attempted to make contact. Duke and Pua were with him. Duke was the contact person for the ductwork team and Pua was the contact for Lou and SWAT. 

Suddenly, the main gunwoman was waving her gun at the people at the tables. It seemed that she was herding them into the center of the room and making them sit on the floor. Some of the ladies were rather elderly and needed to be helped to sit down. He noticed that Grace had helped several of them before she sat down herself. The other children were sobbing and falling apart, but Grace seemed calm. She was removed from Rachel by several people. Rachel made an abortive move to get closer to Grace, but the gunwoman pointed the gun right at her head and Rachel settled back onto her place on the floor. Apparently, nerves were becoming frayed in that room.

This was a bigger problem than anything else as far as Danny was concerned. While the women were seated at the tables they were spread around the room, a wider target range. Grouped together on the floor, the kill shots would be easier to make. There was only Senator Kealoha still laying by the dais and the woman who fainted at Rachel’s former table still in their places. Danny had Duke and Pua relay this news to the teams.

The three gun-wielding people were now walking around the circle of people on the floor, the guns trained on them. They also seemed to be arguing with each other. Danny began dialing the numbers again and again. Finally, on the screen, he saw the woman with the machine gun pull a phone out of a bag and look at it for a moment before she pressed a button and put the phone to her ear.

The minute the phone activated, Danny began talking. “Listen, this is the police. I am Detective Danny Williams of 5-0. We know you’re in there. We know you’re holding those people. We just want everyone to get out safe and sound. How can we do that?”

“Well, Detective Williams.” At that, Danny saw both Rachel and Grace’s heads shoot up, but thankfully the woman didn’t notice. “We want everyone out safe and sound too. Well, maybe except for Senator Kealoha. In order to accomplish that, we’re going to need an affirmative vote for Bill 252 which the good Senator voted against last month.”

“Okay, I don’t know if you noticed, but this isn’t exactly the Hawaiian Parliament here. I’m not going to be able to get that for you. Tell me your name so I know who I’m dealing with. Tell me how else we can end this and let everybody go home.”

“That I’m going to have to think about Detective Williams. I’ll let you know.” And she hung up. Just like that.

Danny slammed his hand against the desk and looked at the monitors again. The three intruders, at this point Danny decided to call them Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and Tweedledummer, were once again arguing. The woman with the machinegun seemed to be in charge. She was Tweedledee. The other woman and the man were gesturing violently and were obviously not happy. The woman was Tweedledum and the man was Tweedledummer. It always made Danny happier if he had a name for a perp; more civilized he thought.

Tweedledee was furious. Nothing was going according to plan. Of course, her only plan had been to get close to Senator Kealoha and get her to change her vote. She hadn’t actually thought about what she would do with a room full of witnesses after she had gotten to the Senator. She also hadn’t thought about the necessity of a getaway plan. Now that Tweedledum had put a dent in the Senator’s skull, she felt things had spiraled completely out of control. Now the cops were involved, which was never her intention. She was just so angry that the vote had gone against her wishes that she wanted to make the Senator suffer. Her brother and sister-in-law had gone along with her, both because they were pretty crazy and violent people as well as addicts. Her sister-in-law in particular liked chaos and drama.

“Okay, now what? How do we get out of here?” her sister-in-law snarled at her.

“I don’t know, okay. I guess we better ask for transportation, like a helicopter. We could go to one of the other islands. And some money. Like a million dollars or something.”

“You really aren’t the brightest light in the chandelier are you?” Her brother shouted. “One of the other islands, are you crazy? All that gets us is captured in a couple of days. Here’s what you tell them. They’re going to take us to Hickam Air Force Base and they’re going to put us on a military jet. They’re going to fly us to Cuba and they’re going to give us five million bucks. Or we’re going to start putting bullets in people. We’ll start with the Senator. Our second choice will be……that kid over there.” And with this, he pointed his gun at Grace. Rachel heaved out a sob and went to stand, at which point Tweedledummer smacked her across the face with his gun. “Shut up bitch. We don’t need problems from any of you.”

Rachel dropped back to the ground, dazed. Grace stared at her, tears running down her face, but she didn’t move. The rest of the people were shocked, but didn’t try and do anything.

Danny watched as Tweedledummer pointed his gun at Grace and he watched Rachel get hit in the face with the gun. His guts dropped to his shoes. It didn’t need to be any more clear than that. This was escalating, and it was escalating fast. His eyes met Duke’s, and the experienced officer nodded at him once. He knew exactly what was happening and what he and Pua needed to tell their teams.

Danny closed his eyes. Just then his phone rang. He snatched up the phone and eyed the monitors again. There was Tweedledee on the phone again. “Okay Detective Williams. This is how it goes. You get us a limo to take us to Hickam. We want five million dollars and a flight to Cuba. We’ll be taking the Senator, this kid (with this she pointed at Grace), this kid (she pointed at another little girl with blond pigtails), and these two broads (and now she had pointed at two ladies, roughly Rachel’s age, with frightened eyes and tear streaked faces). When we get to Cuba, we’ll let the Cuban authorities have them and you can get them back from them.”

“Okay, I’ll have to get that approved. I don’t know how long that will take. You have to give me some time. Why don’t you let some of those ladies go while we’re waiting? You don’t need all those ladies, right? You’ve already picked the ones you’re taking, let some of the others out, okay?

“No, thanks for the offer Detective Williams. We’ll keep everybody we’ve got. We don’t need to open any doors right now. Why don’t you get working on our demands. You’ve got an hour.” And with this, she hung up. 

Danny knew if he let the group leave with their five hostages, all those hostages would be dead. If they breached the room, there was a chance of someone being shot, but with the marksmen on 5-0, HPD and SWAT, it was more likely that it would be the Tweedle group that was taken down. It was a calculated risk, but one they would have to take.

At almost the hour mark, Danny was back on the phone with Tweedledee. He was telling her they needed more time and begging for an extension. Tweedledee was becoming enraged. She yelled at Tweedledum and Tweedledummer to “get the Senator over here, now.” Seeing the situation disintegrating and taking advantage of the distraction, Danny gives the “go” order to the teams and heads for the entrance door himself.

As the two teams breach, Steve drops down from the duct work practically on top of Tweedledee and puts her down, hard and fast. Tweedledum turns her gun on the crowd and zeroes in. Rachel screams “Grace” and throws herself across the people separating them and on top of Grace. She feels as though she’s been punched in the upper back. Lou shoots Tweedledum dead. 

Tweedledummer was also headed for the Senator, but had spun around and fired several shots before he was taken down by Kono. Steve had Tweedledee in cuffs and she was being removed by Duke. Danny ran to where Rachel was laying in a sprawl and at first he couldn’t see Grace. Then he realized Grace was squirming under Rachel, crying out “Mommy, Mommy!” He quickly checked Rachel’s pulse and breathed out a sigh of relief when he found it, weak but there.

“Monkey, lie still! Are you hurt?”

“No, Danno, I’m not, but Mommy….”

Danny cut her off in mid-sentence. “Can you hang in there, Honey? I don’t want to move Mommy until the paramedics can check her out.”

“I’m okay Danno. I can stay here as long as I need to.”

Danny choked back a sob at his small daughter’s bravery. “Good girl, Monkey!” Danny was frantically waving the paramedics over. He saw Steve running towards them from across the room, eyes wide and looking scared.

Just as the paramedics reached them, Rachel groaned and started to shift around.

“Stay still, Rach, don’t move.” Danny reached out and laid a hand on her back.

“Danny” she whispered breathily, “Grace…where’s Grace?”

“She’s fine Rach and closer than you think.”

Rachel heard the little giggle that followed that statement but didn’t realize that it was coming from beneath her. Just then the lead paramedic spoke up.

“Looks like a through and through to the shoulder, Detective, and her cheekbone might be broken. Help us get her on the backboard and we can lift her to the gurney, then we can check out whoever’s under her.”

Steve had reached them by this point and he helped Danny and the paramedics gently roll Rachel onto the backboard and lift her to the gurney. They immediately began moving her to their ambulance. A new crew stepped up and began to assess Grace. After a few tense moments, the lead of this team looked at Danny and Steve and said “She’s fine. You need to keep an eye out in case she gets shocky, but I don’t see any reason for us to transport her.”

Steve shook both paramedics’ hands as Danny was too busy gathering Grace into his arms to take the time to be gracious. By this time, the team had all gathered around Danny and Grace, leaving the clean-up and processing to HPD, SWAT, and the paramedics.

By the end, two of the three perps were dead and the third was in custody, sustaining a broken arm in her arrest, McGarrett-style.

Of the hostages, Senator Kealoha had a severe concussion and four of the women (including Rachel) had been shot. One, like Rachel, had been hit in the shoulder, one in the thigh and the most severely injured had been struck in the abdomen. It looked like all the ladies would be all right. One of the elderly women attendees had suffered a heart attack in all the excitement, but she was also expected to make a full recovery.

Grace was chattering excitedly to her father “I knew you would save me Danno! I knew that you and Uncle Steve and Aunty Kono and Uncle Chin and Uncle Lou would rescue us! I knew you would come for me!” At this, Steve chanced a glance at the irascible former SWAT commander and noticed the man was sporting a huge grin. It’s always nice to be included in the Ohana.

“Baby, I will always come for you! You can always count on your Danno and don’t you ever forget it. Now, how about we go see how Mommy is doing at the hospital?”  
Grace started for the door, but then grabbed Danny’s hand “What about Charlie, Danno? We were supposed to be home by 6:30 so the babysitter could go home. I bet it’s later than that now.”

“Go ahead Danny” Kono put in “Chin and I will go to Rachel’s and relieve the babysitter. Just give us a call when you know what you want us to do, ‘kay?”

“Thanks Kono, Chin. Hey Steve….”

“I’ll drive Danno.”

“There’s a surprise, huh Monkey?” Danny looked pleased when she snickered.

Danny, Steve and Grace pushed past the television cameras outside the hospital and through the doors of the ER. Steve stayed with Grace while Danny went to check with the desk. He spoke briefly to the nurse and then turned around and waved Steve and Grace over to him.

“They took her to surgery. We can wait in the third floor surgical waiting room and the surgeon will fill us in when he’s done.”

Two hours later, the call of “Family of Rachel Edwards” had Danny, Steve, Grace, Kono, Chin and Charlie turning their heads towards the swinging doors where a tired looking surgeon in blue scrubs waited. Danny gestured to the others to wait and walked over and introduced himself to the doctor. They spoke for a few minutes and then Danny returned to the group.

“She’s fine. Everything went fine. He had to repair a few small tears caused by the bullet, but there was no major damage. Her cheekbone is badly bruised but not broken. It’s going to hurt like hel….I mean heck for a few days. They want to keep her at least overnight and probably tomorrow too. She won’t be out of recovery for another hour or so. Chin, Kono, I hate to impose even more, but can you take Charlie and Grace….”

“No, Danno! I want to see Mommy.”

Danny regarded Grace for a long moment. “Grace, I really need you to be a big girl right now. Charlie is little and he’s scared. His daddy is in Vegas (Danny still couldn’t quite believe that Stan wasn’t flying back for Rachel. ‘Keep me updated’ he said), his Mommy is in the hospital and he is going to a house he doesn’t know, with people he doesn’t know. What do you think might help him feel less scared?”

“If I was with him” sighed Grace. “Okay, Danno, but then you have to give Mommy a kiss for me when you see her. And I think Uncle Steve better stay with you so you don’t get too sad.”

With that, Grace jumped off her chair, gave both Danny and Steve a big hug and kiss, turned and grabbed Charlie with one hand and Kono with the other and started down the hall to the elevator.

“That one has her mom’s beauty and her dad’s impulsiveness” grinned Chin.

“Hey, man, thank you and Kono for doing this, sincerely.”

“No worries, brah. You’ve got a guestroom for Kono, and Netflix and a nice couch for me. Come home when you can. We’re good.” With that Chin shook both their hands and headed for the waiting elevator.

Danny stepped into a sleeping Rachel’s hospital room and stood for a moment watching her. She was his ex-wife, so he had actually lost her a long time ago, but today his fear of losing her forever had torn his heart out. She was no longer his, but she would always be the mother of his child, and he knew he would always love her.

Rachel twitched, then grimaced in pain. Danny took one of her hands in his and pressed the nurse call button. Rachel’s dark eyes opened slightly and met his blue ones. “Danny….” she weakly began.

“Shhhh, Rach, here’s how it is. Don’t talk. You’ve been shot and you’ve had surgery, but you’re okay, you’re okay. It’s not too bad as these things go. Grace is fine. She and Charlie are at my house with Chin and Kono. Steve and I are going to stay here with you. Here’s the nurse with some pain meds. You’re going to go right back to sleep and I’m going to be right here in this chair all night. Oh, this is for Grace” and he gently kissed her bruised cheek, “this is for Charlie” and he kissed her other cheek, “and this is for me” and with that he kissed her forehead. “Now, go to sleep, I’ll see you in the morning.”

Rachel was very restless during the night but Danny was always able to speak to her softly and calm her down. Danny sent Steve home after a couple of hours. There was no sense in both of them being exhausted the next day. 

Rachel was doing much better by the next morning. She was still in pain, but the meds kept the worst of it at bay. She was worried about Grace and the effects their horrible afternoon had on her, and she was worried about Charlie. Danny kept reassuring her that Chin and Kono had everything under control, and he finally had Kono do a video chat from her tablet to his phone, so that Rachel could speak with both children. She was much more relaxed at the end of the call then she had been at the beginning.

Her surgeon stopped in on rounds. He checked her over and indicated that he would like her to stay at least one more night. Rachel was adamant that she needed to return home to care for her children. Danny over-ruled her. He was actually surprised that she let him. Her regular housekeeper was back from visiting her children on the Big Island and the babysitter was also available to help. The 5-0 Ohana would also be checking in on them, so he was able to convince Rachel that everything was covered. 

Rachel recovered well and although she was in pain, she was eager to return to her home. Danny took her home and Steve met them with Grace and Charlie. Kono and Chin had gone to their respective homes to get some well-deserved rest. Danny knew he would be buying the malasadas for the next week, and probably the beers on their next outing. Rachel was very quiet and Danny knew she was in pain, but when he asked if she wanted him to stay, she thanked him profusely and insisted that she would be fine with her staff.

Danny called Rachel and Grace every day for the first week she was home, and they were both doing well. Grace was a real trouper and seemed to take everything that had happened in stride. Rachel was recovering well and had already set up the first of her physical therapy sessions. Things were back to how they had been just before Rachel and Grace had headed toward the tea party.

Danny and the rest of the team were gathered around the Smart Table going over some final details on the case. They were all rather shocked when they had discovered that Bill 252, which had set off this entire terrible affair , was a bill that had been introduced to allow the importation of ferrets into Hawaii, something that was currently banned. Tweedledee had moved to Hawaii from the mainland for her job, and she had two breeding pairs of ferrets she was devoted to and had to leave behind. 

She had apparently met Senator Kealoha at a fundraiser and found her sympathetic to her tale of woe concerning her “children.” She had also made a substantial donation to Senator Kealoha’s re-election campaign which for some reason, in her unbalanced state, she thought would give her some input into the Senator’s vote. When Kealoha voted against the measure, Tweedledee lost her last remaining grip on sanity. It was a ridiculous story, that ended up getting many people injured and Tweedledee’s brother and sister-in-law killed.

As they finished at the Smart Table, Steve glanced at Danny and jerked his head towards his office. Danny followed Steve and shut the door behind him. 

“What’s up, buddy?”

“Danny, I’ve been thinking about this. I know it’s none of my business, but you’ve got to fight.”

“Fight…what, Steve?

“For custody of Grace, man. I know you feel guilty about some of the things that Grace gets exposed to because of the job. I know you feel guilty about some of the things we’ve had to do. I get it, buddy, I really do. But, you’re never going to get these years back. Gracie isn’t going to understand you just letting her go. She’s going to think she wasn’t important enough to fight for, not that you thought it was better for her. Trust me, I know.”

Danny took a few long minutes, and just looked at Steve. He saw the fearsome Navy SEAL who was a tough bad-ass. And he also saw a young boy, not that much older than Grace was now, who felt rejected when his father sent him away. His father had a good reason, but it wasn’t a reason either the boy or the man understood.

Danny finally expelled a deep breath that he felt like he had been holding in for months. “Yeah. You’re right, Steve. I know you are right. I will call my attorney on Monday and get started on the process to fight Rachel on this. I don’t want things to be difficult on Grace, but I at least need her to see that I will fight for her and that she’s important to me. Thanks for helping me pull my head out of my ass. I know it’s not easy for you to open up about this stuff.”

Steve smiled at his partner and gripped his shoulder. “Listen, Danno, why don’t you come over after you get a chance to get home and cleaned up. I’ll throw a couple of steaks on the grill and we can kick back and chill out.”

“Sounds good, Steven. I’ll give you a call when I’m heading over.

Steve gave him a quick nod and a smile, and headed out the door for home.

Danny had turned off his computer and was grabbing his keys when his cell phone rang. 

“Williams” he barked into the phone without looking at the caller id. 

“Well, that’s quite the pleasant greeting, Daniel.”

“Sorry, Rach. Didn’t realize it was you. How are you feeling?”

“Much better. Practically good as new. My therapy is going well and she feels that I will return to a full range of motion and there will be no lingering after effects once everything is all healed. So, basically, I am fit as a fiddle. How are you, Danny?”

“You know me, Rach, as long as things are quiet around here and Grace is doing well, everything is okay in my world.”

“Yes, well, Danny, can you swing by on your way home tonight? I need to speak with you and I would like to do it in person.”

“Sure, Rach. I’ll probably be there in about half an hour.”

“See you then. Ta.”

As Danny hung up the phone, he wondered what was on her mind. He assumed that with her perfect British manners, she was inviting him over to thank him for taking care of her and the kids when she had been injured. He knew Grace was planning a sleep over at her friend Lucy’s house, so he figured that Rachel wanted to say her thanks while Grace wasn’t around, so there would be no danger of re-visiting the custody and visitation issue in front of her.

Rachel let Danny into the house and invited him into the “sitting room.” Quite posh, thought Danny, good thing she hadn’t referred to it as the parlor, or he didn’t think he would be able to help the comments that would fly out of his mouth.

“Look, Rach, couldn’t we just figure that you’ve said your thanks and I’ve smiled and said you’re welcome and we could cut this short. I figure you’ve got plenty of things to keep you busy.”

Rachel sat looking at her hands for a few minutes, and turning her giant engagement ring around on her finger. She finally looked up at Danny, and smiled tremulously at him, through eyes that were rapidly filling with tears.

“I’m sorry, Danny.”

“For what, Rach?”

“For thinking that separating you and Grace was the best thing to do. I thought I was protecting her, but all I did was hurt her. And you. She has been miserable since she has been unable to have her regular visitation with you. I was so angry and so frightened when you arrived here looking the way you did after you were sent to Colombia. It scared me. In my fear, I took Grace away from you.”

“However, after what happened at the Country Club, I realize that I cannot protect her from real life. Things happen, sometimes bad things, and we can’t prevent them. We can only deal with them the best we can, as they occur. My goodness, we were just going to a tea party and look what happened. And it had nothing to do with either you or your job. But, Grace was cool and calm during the entire ordeal. She handled herself quite well during an extremely tense situation. The other children there were not able to do that. Grace’s life experiences, even the bad ones, are making her a stronger person. She is a young woman of integrity, compassion, and wit, and much of that is thanks to you. I was wrong. I would like to go back to the schedule that we were previously on.”

Danny was in complete shock. He had known Rachel a long time. She very rarely reversed a decision once she had made up her mind. For a moment he wasn’t sure that he actually believed what she was saying. Once he realized that she meant it, he felt all the air just whoosh out of his body and he struggled to prevent the tears that were already running down his face.

“Oh my god, Rachel, thank you, thank you so much. You don’t know how much this means to me. I just can’t imagine my life without Grace in it and it was killing me to be without her these last months. I don’t know what to say.”

“Oh, Danny, you never lack for words and I’m sure this won’t be the first time.” Rachel smiled gently at him. “Let’s say that you may pick Grace up from school next Friday and she can spend the weekend with you and then we will return to our normal schedule starting the following week. Will that work for you?”

“And how” was Danny’s response. He gently reached out and hugged his ex-wife. “Thank you Rach. Thank you for changing your mind and letting me be part of Grace’s life again.”

“You’re welcome, Daniel, and thank you for everything you do. Thank you for all the ways that you are contributing to making Grace a person we can be proud of.”

As Danny left Rachel’s home, he thought they had come a long way over the last few years. He was sorry for the time that he had missed with Grace, but he was glad that Rachel’s fears, some of which were pretty well founded, were not going to prevent him from being a father to his precious child. He turned the car towards Steve’s house and relished the good news he was going to be able to share with his best friend.


End file.
